Degradation of type I collagen by Porphyromonas gingivalis was monitored by fluorogenic, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), and growth assays. All three assays showed that inactivation of both the rgpA and rgpB genes was necessary to completely eliminate the capacity of P. gingivalis to cleave type I collagen. Leupeptin, an Arg-gingipain-specific protease inhi...

Tannerella forsythia is a bacterial pathogen involved in periodontal disease. A cysteine protease PrtH has been characterized in this bacterium as a virulence factor. PrtH has the activity of detaching adherent cells from substratum, and the level of PrtH is associated with periodontal attachment loss. No reports exist on the structure, active site, and catalytic mechanism of PrtH. Using compar...

Gingipains are cysteine proteinases acting as key virulence factors of the bacterium Porphyromonas gingivalis, the major pathogen in periodontal disease. The 1.5 and 2.0 A crystal structures of free and D-Phe-Phe-Arg-chloromethylketone-inhibited gingipain R reveal a 435-residue, single-polypeptide chain organized into a catalytic and an immunoglobulin-like domain. The catalytic domain is subdiv...

The leading cause of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which affects millions worldwide. Aging populations can foretell the worsening burden in future. AD characterised by following hallmark pathologies: amyloid-β over-production and deposition, abnormal hyperphosphorylation tau to formation neurofibrillary tangles, neuroinflammation. Many potential treatments fail clinical trials, suggesti...